A man is dead after being struck along Broadway Road near 103rd Avenue in West Phoenix, in a crash that came to light only after officers rushed to a report of gunfire a few blocks away. Police detained two adult occupants of the vehicle involved as they work to determine whether the shooting and the deadly crash are connected.
According to ABC15 Arizona, Phoenix police received reports of shots fired near 107th Avenue and Broadway Road. While officers were responding to that call, they received reports of a nearby pedestrian crash, the outlet reports. When they arrived, officials found one man along Broadway Road near 103rd Avenue, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators located the vehicle involved in the crash and detained its two adult occupants, per the same report. Police have not said whether the pair face charges, and it remains unclear whether the shots-fired call and the crash are related — a question investigators are still working through, according to the station's report.
Roadway Restrictions Expected For Investigation
Drivers should expect delays and roadway restrictions on Broadway Road between 99th and 107th avenues while the investigation continues, ABC15 Arizona reported. No additional details were immediately available Wednesday morning.
The stretch of Broadway Road near 103rd Avenue has drawn police attention before. In May, officers responded to a shooting at a house party near the same intersection, when two groups exchanged gunfire and left a man critically injured, according to KTAR News.
A Corridor That Fits a Statewide Pattern
Wednesday's fatal crash lands in a part of West Phoenix where wide arterial streets, high speed limits, and long gaps between signalized crosswalks are common — conditions that AZ Law Now identifies as central to Arizona's pedestrian safety crisis. The outlet's analysis found that 76% of the state's pedestrian fatalities in 2024, or 200 of 261 fatal incidents, happened in darkness along roads built for high vehicle speeds.
Arizona recorded 263 pedestrian deaths in 2024, giving it the second-highest pedestrian fatality rate in the country behind New Mexico, according to KJZZ. Maricopa County alone accounted for 73% of the state's pedestrian crashes that year, logging 1,516 collisions and 158 deaths, per AZ Law Now's reporting.
Phoenix logged 37,472 motor vehicle crashes in 2024, averaging more than 100 collisions a day and representing over 40% of all traffic crashes in Maricopa County, according to data cited by the Law Offices of Samer Habbas. Statewide, total traffic fatalities fell for a third straight year in 2025 to 1,156 deaths, a 5.2% drop from 1,235 the year before, though officials with the Arizona Department of Transportation cautioned that fatal crashes remain near historical highs.
What Arizona Law Says About Fleeing a Crash
Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 28-661, leaving the scene of a crash that results in death or serious injury is a Class 3 felony, or a Class 2 felony if the driver caused the collision, and it carries a mandatory driver's license revocation, according to the Arizona State Legislature. Separately, state law under ARS § 28-792 requires drivers to yield to pedestrians in marked or unmarked crosswalks, and unmarked crosswalks legally exist by default at every intersection in Arizona.
Phoenix has been trying to chip away at these numbers through its Vision Zero Road Safety Action Plan, adopted in 2022, which allocates $10 million annually toward a goal of cutting traffic deaths 25% by 2027 and eliminating them entirely by 2050, according to Arizona PBS. Arizona has also posted the nation's fourth-highest hit-and-run pedestrian fatality rate between 2020 and 2024, averaging 64.2 such deaths a year, per The Gila Herald. It is not yet known whether Wednesday's crash involved a driver who fled the scene, and no additional details have been released as the investigation continues.
